Brian,

Thanks! Actually we are heading towards northern WI, about 1.5hrs north of CWA, into Tomahawk. I was there 2 years ago and there was quite a bit of snow on the ground and the high during the day was -5, forget the windchill (then again the car doesn't feel that).

I am concerned about the salt primarily. My wife's Mazda (it was a 92 Protege we sold after we got the V40) was corroded so badly underneath it was had to tell the parts apart. The first time I taught her now to change a tire on the car we stripped the locking wheel nut since even the lugs had some corrosion. After she moved to NC her guide pins in the front callipers had to be replaced because they had started to rust. And her exhaust...

So that was with only 7yrs of WI winters. I don't think our car will experience that on a regular basis so I'm not as concerned but we do plan on keeping this baby for a long time, we got it on our honeymoon in Sweden so it's got more sentimental value that the average car, unless it's a first car!

I do expect the V40 to fair better as it comes from a region of the world where the climate is similar to WI in the winter, or maybe worse since in S they don't pave their roads past a certain latitude, it's more like northern Canada maybe.

A